I gave Noah the tiniest of nods and looked back at Sarah. She still had the knife to his throat. How the hell was I going to distract her long enough to let Noah make his move?
“Sarah, please, let them go,” I said, concentrating on sounding reasonable. “I admitted everything—that’s what you wanted, right? No one else has to die. What’s the endgame here? You have seventy-five wedding guests arriving soon. You’re going to run? For the rest of your life? Think about it. What happens when I tell the police what you’ve done?”
“You really think they’ll believe you? What proof do you have, Gwen? They’ll find you here with two more bodies—two more to add to your string of dead dates, all covered with your DNA. They couldn’t keep their hands off you, could they?”
She was right. Between the groping, unwanted kisses, manhandling, snogging, and attempted massages, my prints would be all over them.
“You’ll take the blame for all this, while I, the heartbroken victim, will run away to Canada to grieve for my poor fiancé, murdered on the eve of his wedding,” Sarah continued. “That sound like an endgame to you?”
“Canada? This isn’t The Shawshank Redemption, Sarah—you’re a fucking project manager from Sussex, not Andy Dufresne.”
I saw her fingers grip tightly around the knife.
“Okay, okay, sorry,” I said quickly. “It’s a really great plan. I just have one small addition to make it better: let us all go.”
“I’ll tell you what, I have an even better idea,” Sarah said, a thin smile spreading across her face. “Since you seem to struggle to make good choices, why don’t we do a little swiping. I’ll let you choose which one of your lovers here is going to die first. Your poor little ex here, or your paramour Richard.”
“Sarah, I’m not doing this.”
She jabbed the tip of the knife very gently into Noah’s Adam’s apple.
“Why not? It is Valentine’s Day after all. Come on, who do you want to pick? The steady, reliable ex-boyfriend? Handsome. Witty. A great cat-dad. Little bit on the short side, but apart from that, he seems pretty perfect, right? Not sure why anyone wouldn’t want to choose him. Right? Right, Gwen? You’d have to be mad to throw this one away.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Okay, not sure? Well, what about the lovely Richard here?” She went over to him and pulled his gag off. “Washboard abs, absolutely terrific calves, thirty years old, a boring job in IT with a big fat salary. Some first-grade camping anecdotes. And, oh yeah, completely terrified of commitment. You two should get on like a house on fire. Oh, I forgot, you already did. We all know which way you’d swipe on this one, huh?”
She pressed the tip of the knife against Richard’s temple. His eyes were closed, and he was trying to keep as still as possible. A single bead of sweat dropped off his eyebrow and splashed onto the blade.
“Please…” he mumbled.
“Right. Or. Left?” Sarah said, very slowly and deliberately.
“I told you, Sarah, I am not—”
I saw her fingers tighten around the handle again, and looked over to Noah. If he could break free now, while her attention was on Richard, maybe he’d have a chance to grab the knife.
“Not so fun now, is it?” Sarah said. “When there’s something actually at stake? It’s pretty easy just to swipe yes or no on a screen, but when your actions actually mean something, it’s not so fun, is it?”
Anger boiled up inside me. “Fuck you,” I spat.
“Well, that would give you the hat trick, wouldn’t it? I’m the only person here you haven’t fucked yet.”
Quick as a flash, she moved back over to Noah, and held the knife so close to his throat I could see the skin pinch. Damn it.
“Make your choice,” she said.
I tried to speak but nothing came out. She pressed the knife slowly into the flesh of his neck.
“Wait, stop, stop it,” I eventually managed to splutter. “Richard. Kill Richard.”
“Ah, I should’ve known you’d never let any harm come to your precious Noah,” Sarah said, pulling the knife away. “All right, looks like it’s darling Richard’s turn first.”
As she turned toward Richard, I gave Noah another nod. It was now or never, and I had one more ace up my sleeve, or in my pocket, to be precise.
I pulled the Taser out.
“Not so fast,” I said, pointing it at Sarah. “Remember this?”
She flinched, and in that moment, Noah swung his legs and broke free of the chair. Everything happened in a blur. Noah lurched into Sarah, knocking her backward. She steadied herself on the altar and made a sweep at him with the knife. But with his arms still fastened together, all Noah could do was shoulder-barge into her.
My finger hovered over the Taser trigger, but before I could fire, Sarah sidestepped Noah’s attack, and he crashed headfirst into the altar. In a split second, Sarah grabbed him from behind, holding the knife up against his throat, shielding herself with his body.
“Well, looks like Noah will have to go first after all,” she panted. “Process of elimination, huh?”
I steadied the Taser, gripping it with both hands. But there was no way I could hit her with Noah in the way.
“Shoot her!” Richard shouted.
“Have you ever fired one of those before?” Sarah sneered.
“No, but I’m very good at laser tag,” I said.
That wasn’t true, I was absolutely terrible at laser tag. And had no idea if a) I even knew how to work a Taser, or b) had the guts to use it. I kept the Taser trained on Sarah, but my wobbling arms betrayed the fact that, no, I hadn’t held a weapon before. I steadied it as best I could, and tried to remember what the cops said on TV.
“Don’t move,” I growled.
“Seriously?” Sarah said. “Don’t move? That’s what you’re going with?”
“Yep, seriously. You’ve just murdered half of Eastbourne’s least eligible men, you think I won’t stick you with a Taser? This thing fires from ten feet away.”
“You’re bluffing,” Sarah said, forcing the knife against Noah’s neck. “You can’t even score a netball hoop from inside the goal circle. There’s no way you can make that shot.”
I wavered, my finger releasing the trigger. My legs felt like they were about to give way and my hands were shaking. Sarah was right. With Noah in front of her, there was no way I could hit her.
“One step closer, and I’ll slit his throat,” she said.
“Don’t do it, Sarah,” I said.
“Why not? After what you did to me, you deserve this.”
“But he doesn’t,” I pleaded. “Noah’s not some random stranger, he’s your friend. If you hurt him, you’ll never be able to live with yourself. Believe me, I know what it’s like trying to live with a terrible mistake.”
“Oh, Gwen,” Sarah said. “Sleeping with Richard wasn’t your mistake. You betrayed me way before that. From the moment Noah came back into your life, you idolized him, just like you did before. And you always, always chose him over our friendship, even when he was stopping you from making the most of your life. And then when you finally woke up and dumped him, you just sought out attention from a bunch of worthless men, instead of reaching out to me. Your best friend.”
“I couldn’t,” I said. “Not after what I did to you.”
“Bullshit, Gwen. I watched you cry over what you did to Noah, but where were the tears for me? ‘Here if you need’? What a joke. And you know what’s really funny? It was always me who said that to you. You never said it back. You know why? Because you were never there for me. So now you’re going to suffer, on your own, like I had to.”
“Those tears,” I said. “They weren’t for Noah. I see that now—it was guilt. I couldn’t ever be happy after what I did to you.”
“So guilty that you were prepared to just let me blindly walk into this poisoned marriage?” Sarah went on. “To this man who couldn’t keep his pants on for more than ten minutes?”
“I thought, I thought…” I stuttered. “I thought by not telling you, I was protecting you.”
“You were protecting yourself. And look where that got you,” Sarah said.
I lowered the Taser and walked slowly toward her.
“You’re right,” I said quietly. “I should have told you.”
“So drop the Taser,” Sarah said. “It’s over.”
I took another step closer.
“I said, drop it,” Sarah barked.
I stopped just in front of them and held the Taser above my head. Slowly I leaned in toward Noah’s face, close enough that our lips were almost touching. I rested my forehead on his, and closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I said to him.
Then, with one swift movement, I swung my arm down, jabbed the Taser hard under Noah’s ribcage, and pulled the trigger. There was a loud crackle and a flash of blue electricity as the shock made my arm recoil. Noah’s eyes rolled back in his head as it slumped to his chest, and he fell to the ground.
“Now I can make the shot,” I said, pointing the Taser directly at Sarah’s forehead. “Drop the knife.”
She let it go, and it clattered onto the stone tiles of the church. I kicked the knife, sending it skidding across the floor toward Richard.
“What… what are you doing?” Sarah said, her voice cracking.
“I’m letting you go,” I said.